Award-Winning GMing Advice
Gnome Stew won the silver ENnie Award for Best Blog in
2011 and
2010 -- thank you for your support! Online since 2008, we've published
1,109 articles packed with GMing tips and advice, as well as
two books for GMs. Our
top 30 articles make a great starting point for new readers.
"I check Gnome Stew every day." -- Monte Cook
"fantastic blog for game masters, dungeon masters, and rpg fans" -- Wil Wheaton
"If you aren’t reading Gnome Stew, you’re missing out." -- Wolfgang Baur
Welcome to the first annual New Year, New Game challenge!
New Year, New Game (NYNG for short) is a new Gnome Stew venture -- an annual challenge to GMs all over the world: Run a new game this year.
New Year, New Game is an idea that we hope will catch on with gamers all over the world, much like GM’s Day did (it’s celebrated on March 4th every year). ...
As part of our first annual New Year, New Game challenge, we're also running our first-ever blog carnival!
This is separate from the NYNG contest, although the timeframe is the same and folks are welcome to both enter the contest and take part in the blog carnival.
A blog carnival is an event that features multiple blogs contributing posts on the same broad topic, in this case posts about running ...
Welcome to 2012! Before we all get exploded by the Mayan apocalypse (save for those lucky few who get saved by John Cusack driving a succession of improbably durable vehicles), why not take part in a GMing challenge?
Or better yet, a challenge that's also a contest where you can win cool things?
Or even better still, a challenge that's also a contest and our first-ever blog carnival?
The first stop ...
Merry Christmas from all of us here at Gnome Stew!
Whether you do more gaming or less over the holidays, whether your stocking is full of dice or coal, and whether you celebrate Christmas or another holiday, we wish you and yours the very best and a very happy new year.
20th-level necromancers have determined that approximately 40% of all gnomes turn into dust when exposed to a camera, so ...
There were many fine entries, but Gnome Stew reader ManiacClown is the winner with his brilliant mash up of holiday cheer and cold war espionage in this gem of a comment:
Kris “Santa” Sinterklaas is many things. Among them is an international criminal mastermind, kept alive on a life-extending alchemical mixture. For centuries he has schemed to bring the world under his jolly boots of doom, earning the trust ...
For the novice gamemaster, designing a level of a dungeon can be a daunting, yet rewarding, task.
Keep in mind, a good dungeon crawl should contain a variety of elements.
There should be something to challenge each party member’s specialty ability or skill set, as well as something to amaze, to amuse, to frighten and perhaps something it would be best to evade or avoid.
Above all, though, is the big ...
Dipping a ladle into our suggestion pot, I see that NinjaBait had a question about setting details: I’ve been a DM/GM for several years now. I’ve never had any complaints about my stories or settings, but I’ve never felt very comfortable with describing what I’m seeing in my head. “The pungent stench of mildew emanates from the wet dungeons walls as stagnant water sloshes around your feet” becomes ...
My friend Ken has started running a post-apocalypse game based in our immediate area. One of his favorite touches when devising a scenario is to take something familiar -- in this case geography -- and shade it differently. What will our world look like in a 100 years or so after our government collapses?
The campus of Bradley University certainly gives off a creepier vibe when post-apocalyptic bad guys ...
This summer it's been my good fortune to visit a lot of parks and zoos with the family. Seeing a little wildlife, exploring a little greenery — even in carefully controlled park conditions — has invigorated my planning for wilderness encounters.
I mean, if going more extreme fits you, be my guest. One member of our gaming group took a safari to Africa last year before running the Serpent's ...
A card game that’s played by creating the cards with which it is played, 1000 Blank White Cards is a perfect game for those times when your group is between games or unable to play your regular game for whatever reason.
According to lore, 1000 Blank White Cards was created by Nathan McQuillen of Madison, Wisconsin. During a coffee run, he spied a box labeled, “1000 blank white cards” ...
I recently made what was probably my last purchase from my local bookseller, the soon-to-be defunct Waldenbooks, which was the "Mutants and Masterminds Third Edition Hero's Handbook."
I figured now was as good a time as any to look under the hood at M&M.
(Yes, you are allowed to pause and wonder why I've never picked up M&M before. We're talking about its third edition here, after all. What can ...
Is it just a summer thing? Or does the fact I have two boys who run around with their holsters, cap guns, bandanas, stick horses and range hats have something to do with it?
Or how about the fact that there is nothing like plopping down on the couch late at night and watching “Duel at Diablo,” “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” a train-lovers’ guilty-pleasure in “Breakheart Pass,” ...
I love it when my gaming interests intersect with real life — or at least — the lives of our family's mini-mes.
The First Born’s final class assignment for her social studies unit on the medieval period was to construct a catapult. So, armed with scrap wood from my shop, an instructional video from the good folks over stormthecastle.com, a table saw and good length of rope, we set ...
Looking to recharge creatively, I’ve been diving back into an old friend, my collection of pulp fiction. Specifically, this bit of inspiration came from the Robert E. Howard Conan tale, “The Servants of Bit-Yakin.”
The first part of the serialized novella is a cliffhanger, for Conan stumbles into a trap as he explores the jungle palace ruins. It reads:
He turned toward the arch — with appalling suddenness the seemingly ...
For a variety of reasons, I've cut way back on the number of gaming books I've bought over the past year -- and as a bookworm who never has enough space for all of my books, and whose wife drops regular hints that her Kindle really cuts down on the impending need for additional shelves, that feels pretty weird.
As a GM, I'm used to buying a lot of ...
